The Irish Astronomical Association was formed in 1974 and draws its 200+ members from both the UK and Ireland. The IAA membership ranges from complete beginners to accomplished observers and astrophotographers. Read more.....

Professor Mike Burton has recently taken on the Directorship of Armagh Observatory and the Planetarium bringing both bodies under a single management. Prior to this he spent many years in Australia carrying our research into how stars form and the excitation of the interstellar medium in which this occurs. This makes uses the tools of infrared and millimetre-wave astronomy, measuring the spectral signatures arising from the gas and dust in interstellar molecular clouds.

We are very pleased to welcome Prof Burton to the IAA to talk to us about "Explorers of the Galaxy"

One of the most challenging endeavours in modern technological society is predicting the occurrence of adverse space weather conditions in the near-Earth space environment that are hazardous to technology and human life. The main source of adverse space weather is our active star, the Sun. Solar flares are highly energetic events that occur on the Sun, but can directly impact day-to-day technologies in space (e.g. satellites, GPS signals, astronaut radiation) and on Earth (e.g. radio communication).

In the last few years, we have witnessed a second renaissance in robotic space exploration. Unlike the era of Voyager and Magellan however, the missions that have truly caught the public’s eye have visited the Solar System’s small objects. New Horizons to Pluto, Rosetta to comet 67P, Dawn to Ceres and Vesta, we now have a deep understanding of these small bodies implicating facts about their formation that we are still yet to fully appreciate.